Yet another winning speech this week. Kudos to Mun Yin. We look forward to your next speech.
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Good evening fellow toastmaster and guest, my name is Cheah Mun Yin, from ISS division. I have been with ING over 8 years since year 2001.
I am dedicated in supporting SMART400 systems, together with 5 other members in Solution Enterprise Team. Yes, we are the well known SMART team!!!
My Ice breaker speech title today is ‘Story of myself’…
Does anyone know where is ‘Ho Cheng Yu’ ? Maybe most of you heard about Samping / Hang Tuah Star LRT station/Pudu Jail; ‘Ho Cheng Yu’ is just the notorious place in between both. I stay there since I was born together with my parents, 3 of my sister and my youngest brother, until the day I get married.
I like the place very much, not because it is just 5 minutes drive or 20 minutes walk to all the shopping center in KL, it has all my little childhood memories, good or bad, even the scary ones.
My father operates a family kopitiam business in ‘Ho Cheng Yu’, his personal assistance “My mom” helps him in the shop and with another 4 little girls.
The most exciting experience that I have at this place is all the gangster activities. When I was 5-6 years olds, I like the hear people scream ‘Run, gangsters are fighting’, then my father will quickly close the door gate and we will peek from the side of the door to see two gang of people running around; some with blood and follow by another gang of people holding water pipe and stick of wood. Ok… this is not the movie story, this is my true experience.
When I was young, I do not play with dolls/toys because we can’t afford these luxurious items. Outdoor sport is my favorite, where I always gang up with my sisters, cousins and neighbors running around playing hide and seek, to catch grasshopper, spiders, tadpole and fishes. We love our play site so much, that we will fight with other group of children to protect our territory.
I went to Kuen Cheng (1) for my primary school and Bandaraya girl school for my Secondary. During my school days I am very active in sport. I am representing the school for Backetball, Netball, long jump, high jump and 400m run.
I feel proud when school headmaster announces my name for practice or competition when others sitting in the boring classroom.
I love sport so much and that’s why my annual report card results are always in the color of burning red. It hurts too when my father sees it.
With my parents’ strong support in my education, I am glad to complete my bachelor degree studying abroad in University of Southern Queensland Australia graduated in 1996.
During my college time, emm… I met a geek, he is my first and last boyfriend and my husband. He was a computer lab tutor while I was among a few assisting as computer lab coordinator. We were study and work together since the day we met till we get married after 9 long years.
We married in September 9, year 1999 (and I think or may be on 9:09:09 in the morning). We have 1/2/3 & 4 lovely kids. Yes, I am a super mom of 4 children, not many people believe it, do you? They are 3 cuties girls with one handsome boy, and they are my proud little angels.
Fun and excitement are always part of my life which I loving it. Though there were times of sour and spicy, and still I am enjoying it so much.
Finally this is what I want to say, love yourself, enjoy your live, be who you are, and do what your best…
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
CELUP IN MALAYSIA
Another print worthy winning speech from one of the new members. Congratulations Yazlin. Well done!
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Celup in English means dipped or in this context I mean ‘of mixed parentage’.
It was a cold wet night on the 26th day of January 1985. A couple was awoken in the wee hours of the morning by the sudden labour pains of the wife of the man. He quickly rushed her to the Ipoh Specialist Center and within a few hours, a baby girl was born. That girl was named Yazlin. Her name was a combination of the man and the wife’s names. The following year, she had a sister in the family.
Yazlin was a bright child. She was very inquisitive and always wondered about how things in her surroundings work. At the age of five, she was placed in a kindergarten and that was among the first places she learned to socialize with other children. She always had a passion for music. It was at that kindergarten where she first learnt how to play the piano which she eventually completed her final grade of piano at the age of 14. Life was carefree and blissful there.
At the age of seven, she entered Standard 1 at the Main Convent Ipoh. It was quite a change for her to adapt to because coming from a family of mixed parentage with an English speaking background, many a time she felt like she was confused of her identity. More often than not, she would rather say that she isn’t Malay nor is she Chinese but should be categorized under ‘lain-lain’ which means ‘others’ or races that do not specifically belong to a category. She would also prefer to be categorised as ‘English’.
One would take for granted that a Malay child would be able to converse in the Malay language. However, little Yazlin couldn’t speak Malay except for a few simple words especially during her first year in Primary school. On the other hand, her maternal family is Hakka Chinese. She grew up listening to her mother speaking to her grandmother in the Hakka dialect. Communication between Yazlin and her grandmother is something worth observing. It is like a chicken and a duck communicating but somehow they understand each other. Her po-po (grandmother) would ask, “Yazlin, Sit Pau Mei?(what do you want to eat? in Hakka)” and she would answer in English, “I want chicken rice”, even until today.
In secondary school, Yazlin was a geeky person. She was as tall as a pole, as skinny as a stick with big frizzy hair and she wore glasses and braces. She felt like she didn’t really fit into any group and had some minor self-esteem problems. However, she always tried to hide those feelings and put on a different persona on the outside. She hid this well by joining the school choral speaking team, choir, English Language Society and also Girl Guides. In fact, she was also a school prefect. It was also during this time she got really involved in tenpin bowling. By Form 3, freshly roped into the national team, she was sent to Egypt for her first international assignment. Through these international exposures, she slowly shed her square image and gained self-confidence. One day, she looked into the mirror and thought to herself, “Hey, I don’t look so bad”.
Looking back, she realizes that her life experiences as a celup has taught her a lot about appreciating the Malaysian cultures and she is proud to be ‘Made in Malaysia’. So who is Yazlin? I am Yazlin.
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Celup in English means dipped or in this context I mean ‘of mixed parentage’.
It was a cold wet night on the 26th day of January 1985. A couple was awoken in the wee hours of the morning by the sudden labour pains of the wife of the man. He quickly rushed her to the Ipoh Specialist Center and within a few hours, a baby girl was born. That girl was named Yazlin. Her name was a combination of the man and the wife’s names. The following year, she had a sister in the family.
Yazlin was a bright child. She was very inquisitive and always wondered about how things in her surroundings work. At the age of five, she was placed in a kindergarten and that was among the first places she learned to socialize with other children. She always had a passion for music. It was at that kindergarten where she first learnt how to play the piano which she eventually completed her final grade of piano at the age of 14. Life was carefree and blissful there.
At the age of seven, she entered Standard 1 at the Main Convent Ipoh. It was quite a change for her to adapt to because coming from a family of mixed parentage with an English speaking background, many a time she felt like she was confused of her identity. More often than not, she would rather say that she isn’t Malay nor is she Chinese but should be categorized under ‘lain-lain’ which means ‘others’ or races that do not specifically belong to a category. She would also prefer to be categorised as ‘English’.
One would take for granted that a Malay child would be able to converse in the Malay language. However, little Yazlin couldn’t speak Malay except for a few simple words especially during her first year in Primary school. On the other hand, her maternal family is Hakka Chinese. She grew up listening to her mother speaking to her grandmother in the Hakka dialect. Communication between Yazlin and her grandmother is something worth observing. It is like a chicken and a duck communicating but somehow they understand each other. Her po-po (grandmother) would ask, “Yazlin, Sit Pau Mei?(what do you want to eat? in Hakka)” and she would answer in English, “I want chicken rice”, even until today.
In secondary school, Yazlin was a geeky person. She was as tall as a pole, as skinny as a stick with big frizzy hair and she wore glasses and braces. She felt like she didn’t really fit into any group and had some minor self-esteem problems. However, she always tried to hide those feelings and put on a different persona on the outside. She hid this well by joining the school choral speaking team, choir, English Language Society and also Girl Guides. In fact, she was also a school prefect. It was also during this time she got really involved in tenpin bowling. By Form 3, freshly roped into the national team, she was sent to Egypt for her first international assignment. Through these international exposures, she slowly shed her square image and gained self-confidence. One day, she looked into the mirror and thought to herself, “Hey, I don’t look so bad”.
Looking back, she realizes that her life experiences as a celup has taught her a lot about appreciating the Malaysian cultures and she is proud to be ‘Made in Malaysia’. So who is Yazlin? I am Yazlin.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Rules for Success in Life
Another blue ribbon awarded to a deserving speaker. A speaker who knows the rules to success. Let's put our hands together for Puah Kia Yong with his speech, Rules for success in life...
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Can I have a show of hand who does not want to be success in their live? No one raise their hand I think all of us will like to be success in our life in all the different areas because of that I need a little bit of help over here.
Can you all, pls rise one hand like me imaging you are holding a cup, then bend your head to the hand and the other hand hit softly at ear? Once it fills with all your thought, pls throw it away. I need you all to have an empty cup mindset or a mindset of a child to listen to my speech to bring some of my thought back to consider with you.
As define from Oxford dictionary the success
1. Accomplishment of an aim or purpose.
2. The attainment of fame, wealth, or social status.
3. A person or thing that achieves success.
Base on Stephen Downes, a senior research officer with the National Research Council of Canada Top Ten Rules to be successful were:-
1. How to Learn
2. How to predict consequences
3. How to communicate clearly
4. How to distinguish truth from fiction
5. How to read
6. How to empathize
7. How to be creative
8. How to stay healthy
9. How to value yourself
10. How to live meaningfully
Base on Puah Kia Yong, member of ING Leadership Toastmaster rules to be successful need 3 main rules that will be WPC. Willingness, Potential and Communication.
Willingness
To explain further for the rules I will share a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but nobody did it.
Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought anybody could do it but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
Rules number to be success you must be willing to thing. In short just do it.
Potential
Potential is an importance rule to determine your success. WHY? Let me show you how importance and powerful this word will be. In the older day movie a hero facing a group of his enemy in the circle and laugh loudly, and he said to the enemy If I shown my potential to you all then you all will know. Then he laughed loudly again and said if I shown my potential to you all then you all will know. At the end the other good guys arrived and defeat all the enemies.
By using the word itself, he managed to defeat the enemies. What can be the potential? The potential maybe be he has was a great fighter, great defender and can be a great lairer too.
Communicate
There was once a 4 different insect that gathers to an ant house to play majong. The 4 insect is ant, dragonfly, spider and Millipede. While they are playing, the spider would like to have some bir. So the ant ran out quickly go to the kitchen to get some bir out within second he comes back some bottle of birs. Then the millipede said how we could have bir without some snacks. The ant said I when just now it should be someone else turn. The spider volunteers to go to this round. However, the ant told his friend “My mum doesn’t like the kitchen floor to be dirty so pls be careful when to take food from there. Within minutes, the spider comes back with some snacks. The round the ant complained we need some cup for the bir so this time dragonfly volunteer to take it. Within minutes, it came back. Now dragonfly said we do not have the opener for the bir. So for sure this round should be the millipede turn. 1 hour has passed yet their friend is not back they start to worry whether their friend had an incident or not. They rush to the kitchen, saw the millipede, and the ant almost fainted.
In proper communication may give you the result that you want but with a price that you need to paid. Communication is not just get the message across but also with the right expectation.
To sum up the 3 rules to success will be
Rule 1. A success people willing to do 3 important things. They will do :-
1. Do some thing people don’t dare to do.
2. Do some thing people don’t want to do.
3. Do some thing people don’t know how to do.
Rule2. Success people have to know What is their potential and further improve it, their weak potential that need more attention and lastly how to used the potential to their own advantages.
Rule3. Communication is the most importance rules for successful. With the right communication, you will gain the right result. With the competent communication, you will be competent to be successful in your live.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Can I have a show of hand who does not want to be success in their live? No one raise their hand I think all of us will like to be success in our life in all the different areas because of that I need a little bit of help over here.
Can you all, pls rise one hand like me imaging you are holding a cup, then bend your head to the hand and the other hand hit softly at ear? Once it fills with all your thought, pls throw it away. I need you all to have an empty cup mindset or a mindset of a child to listen to my speech to bring some of my thought back to consider with you.
As define from Oxford dictionary the success
1. Accomplishment of an aim or purpose.
2. The attainment of fame, wealth, or social status.
3. A person or thing that achieves success.
Base on Stephen Downes, a senior research officer with the National Research Council of Canada Top Ten Rules to be successful were:-
1. How to Learn
2. How to predict consequences
3. How to communicate clearly
4. How to distinguish truth from fiction
5. How to read
6. How to empathize
7. How to be creative
8. How to stay healthy
9. How to value yourself
10. How to live meaningfully
Base on Puah Kia Yong, member of ING Leadership Toastmaster rules to be successful need 3 main rules that will be WPC. Willingness, Potential and Communication.
Willingness
To explain further for the rules I will share a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but nobody did it.
Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought anybody could do it but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
Rules number to be success you must be willing to thing. In short just do it.
Potential
Potential is an importance rule to determine your success. WHY? Let me show you how importance and powerful this word will be. In the older day movie a hero facing a group of his enemy in the circle and laugh loudly, and he said to the enemy If I shown my potential to you all then you all will know. Then he laughed loudly again and said if I shown my potential to you all then you all will know. At the end the other good guys arrived and defeat all the enemies.
By using the word itself, he managed to defeat the enemies. What can be the potential? The potential maybe be he has was a great fighter, great defender and can be a great lairer too.
Communicate
There was once a 4 different insect that gathers to an ant house to play majong. The 4 insect is ant, dragonfly, spider and Millipede. While they are playing, the spider would like to have some bir. So the ant ran out quickly go to the kitchen to get some bir out within second he comes back some bottle of birs. Then the millipede said how we could have bir without some snacks. The ant said I when just now it should be someone else turn. The spider volunteers to go to this round. However, the ant told his friend “My mum doesn’t like the kitchen floor to be dirty so pls be careful when to take food from there. Within minutes, the spider comes back with some snacks. The round the ant complained we need some cup for the bir so this time dragonfly volunteer to take it. Within minutes, it came back. Now dragonfly said we do not have the opener for the bir. So for sure this round should be the millipede turn. 1 hour has passed yet their friend is not back they start to worry whether their friend had an incident or not. They rush to the kitchen, saw the millipede, and the ant almost fainted.
In proper communication may give you the result that you want but with a price that you need to paid. Communication is not just get the message across but also with the right expectation.
To sum up the 3 rules to success will be
Rule 1. A success people willing to do 3 important things. They will do :-
1. Do some thing people don’t dare to do.
2. Do some thing people don’t want to do.
3. Do some thing people don’t know how to do.
Rule2. Success people have to know What is their potential and further improve it, their weak potential that need more attention and lastly how to used the potential to their own advantages.
Rule3. Communication is the most importance rules for successful. With the right communication, you will gain the right result. With the competent communication, you will be competent to be successful in your live.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Culture of Compliance
Blue Ribbon for Kelly, despite being accidentally misjudged for speaking out of time. The Timer (being a first timer - pun intended haha...) thought that the speech was to be delivered within 6 minutes instead of 7, and buzz Kelly off while she as delivering her final punchline at 6:30 minutes. Anyway, all's well ends well.. :) And we all learnt an important thing, which is to keep our speeches short and simple at all times. :) =================================================
Does anyone know this man? He is Flavio Briatore. Who is Flavio Briatore? This is the face of a Cheater!
Does anyone know this man? He is Flavio Briatore. Who is Flavio Briatore? This is the face of a Cheater! Ladies and Gentleman, Fellow toastmasters and friends,
Why am I talking about this cheater? Who is he? What has he cheated me of?
Not of my money, as he has 100 times more money than I do. And I am not jealous of his wife. This man is closely link to all of us. And I feel I need to make all of you aware of this man and what he has done to us. Flavio Briatore was the Managing Director of the Renault Formula One team. And this man has now been suspended for life from F1 activities!Up until last week, ING was sponsoring the Renault F1 team. And luckily, ING was very wise to denounce the sponsorship immediately upon knowing this incident, otherwise ING will be labelled as a CHEATER as well. Imagine the impact if our customers were to associate us as cheaters if we continue to associate and endorse a cheating team.
You can see how this one man, Flavio Briatore has brought shame to the entire Renault F1 team by masterminding a race-fixing scandal and indirectly bringing shame to all of us in ING as well. For those who are unaware, let me tell you of this scandal. Everyone loves to hear a good scandal, don’t we?
Who watched F1 last Sunday? Where was it held? Yes, Singapore. Incidentally, last September in Singapore, Flavio Briatore ordered Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash his car so that teammate Fernando Alonso could win the 2008 Grand Prix title. His action not only compromised the integrity of the sport but also endangered the lives of the spectators and drivers!
Sports is considered to be an avenue for clean competition, thus you see many big companies endorsing sports event and promoting sportsmanship. And F1 is supposed to be the Big Boys Sports -the luxurious lifestyle where fame and fortune comes hand in hand with face. Thus this scandal is a big blow to the world sports body and all the companies involved.
In our corporate world, the people make the difference. Many do not realise the importance of compliance or corporate governance and how one mistake from one person can change the entire image of the company. Corporate governance is not only about having rules and regulations and policies. We know it's not enough to have policies. It's not enough to have procedures. It's not enough to have good intentions. All of these can help. But to be successful, compliance must be an embedded part of our firm's culture.
With the major impact shown by various major companies such as Enron, Arthur Andersen and Barings bank, we've noticed that the root cause is mainly their poor cultures of compliance. In many cases it seems clear that the culture of immediate, short-term profit overwhelmed the culture of compliance. Scandal teaches us that the culture of compliance must be taken seriously. As such, ING and all of us must learn from all these scandals and not make the same mistakes. I strongly believe that having a culture of compliance must be part of every firm's core business model.
A wise person once said that the test of a truly moral person, is whether he does the right thing when no one is looking. Certainly, the test for all firms is whether they maintain and each day, reinforce, a culture of compliance — which includes a culture of doing not only what is within the strict parameters of the law, but also what is right — whether or not a regulator or anyone else is looking. It is critical that firms establish a strong culture of compliance that guides and reinforces employees as they make decisions and choices each day.
In conclusion, having a healthy compliance culture is very important to our business. As we witness all the scandals and their impact, we will benefit, because it will help us sharpen the focus of our oversight in the compliance area. But more importantly, it will also enhance the protection we deliver to investors, which is after all, the ultimate goal of every culture of compliance.
So I leave you all with a simple question. If your boss was Flavio Briatore, and you were in Nelson Piquet Jr’s shoes, would you have done what your boss have asked you to do? Remember you can make a difference. You can make the change and be part of the culture of compliance.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The three keys to unlocking a promotion
Another winning performance by Mr. President.
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Good evening fellow Toastmaster, friends and colleagues.
The motto of our club is “Friends helping friends to succeed”.
I have gained so much personal growth in these meetings that I feel it is just common courtesy that I give something back to help all of you here tonight to succeed.
I am going to share with you what are the three keys to unlocking a promotion?
In the17 years that I have been in this company, I have had many, many promotions.
As a manager of people I have also given promotions to many.
From my years of experience, I have observed and come up with some guiding principles on what it takes to get a promotion.
The first key to getting a promotion is, “You must make yourself appear competent”.
The key word here is “APPEAR”. It is not enough that you are competent but you must make others see and belief that you are competent. There are some who are “legends in their own minds”. They hold strong belief that they are competent but have done nothing to make others see their abilities. The problem is, when it comes to a promotion, how you see yourself is not as important as how others see you. How people perceive you is dependent on how you interact and communicate with them.
Being in Toastmasters gives you an advantage, an opportunity to hone your skills as a leader and a communicator. However, becoming an outstanding public speaker is not enough. You must find opportunities to showcase your communication skills and be recognized as a great public speaker in the company. Give powerful presentations in meetings, be a confident MC in a company function, show people that you are a Competent Communicator and make yourself visible as a Competent Leader.
The second key ingredient to getting a promotion is, “Make yourself redundant”.
There are many, in this company, who have been doing the same job for 10, 15 years.
They are very good at what they do but the problem is that they don’t have an able or ready successor. They are so good at what they do that nobody considers them for another job because it’s just too painful to find a replacement for them. No manager wants to fill a position by creating a problem in another area. Before you can be promoted, you must have an able and ready successor. You must show that you can develop people. This is a very important trait especially for leadership positions. In fact the more senior the leadership position, the more critical it is that you have the ability to groom a successor.
The third key ingredient to a promotion is “Opportunity must knock”.
Before one can be promoted, a position must first become available to create the opportunity for you. The first two key ingredients, appearing competent and making yourself redundant are entirely within your control but the third “opportunity” is entirely up to luck or fate. You cannot control opportunity but you can make sure opportunities come up more frequently for you. Promotion opportunities usually come up in your own division because people know you Making other senior managers recognize your talents and see you as a competent leader will put you in their minds. The adage “Out of sight, out of mind” holds very true here. Many promotion opportunities go to waste because people are overlooked or even seen as not ready
Now that you know the three keys to a promotion, I want you to visualize a door with 3 locks. The door is the gateway to your promotion. To open the door you need the three keys “Appearing Competent”, “Making yourself redundant” and “Opportunity”.
You can’t open the door if you do not have all three keys with you.
So if you appear competent and an opportunity comes a long but you have no able and ready successor, then you will miss the boat. If you appear competent and you have an able and ready successor but an opportunity does not comes up, then of course there is no promotion and you have to wait for one.
You need all the three keys at the same time to be able get a promotion.
I urge you all to take charge of your careers. Make sure you appear competent to everyone and make sure you have a capable successor, so when opportunity knocks, you can grab your promotion.
I hope I have enlightened you on what it takes to get a promotion and that I have been able to live up to our clubs’ motto of “Friends helping friends to Succeed”.
Back to you.
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Good evening fellow Toastmaster, friends and colleagues.
The motto of our club is “Friends helping friends to succeed”.
I have gained so much personal growth in these meetings that I feel it is just common courtesy that I give something back to help all of you here tonight to succeed.
I am going to share with you what are the three keys to unlocking a promotion?
In the17 years that I have been in this company, I have had many, many promotions.
As a manager of people I have also given promotions to many.
From my years of experience, I have observed and come up with some guiding principles on what it takes to get a promotion.
The first key to getting a promotion is, “You must make yourself appear competent”.
The key word here is “APPEAR”. It is not enough that you are competent but you must make others see and belief that you are competent. There are some who are “legends in their own minds”. They hold strong belief that they are competent but have done nothing to make others see their abilities. The problem is, when it comes to a promotion, how you see yourself is not as important as how others see you. How people perceive you is dependent on how you interact and communicate with them.
Being in Toastmasters gives you an advantage, an opportunity to hone your skills as a leader and a communicator. However, becoming an outstanding public speaker is not enough. You must find opportunities to showcase your communication skills and be recognized as a great public speaker in the company. Give powerful presentations in meetings, be a confident MC in a company function, show people that you are a Competent Communicator and make yourself visible as a Competent Leader.
The second key ingredient to getting a promotion is, “Make yourself redundant”.
There are many, in this company, who have been doing the same job for 10, 15 years.
They are very good at what they do but the problem is that they don’t have an able or ready successor. They are so good at what they do that nobody considers them for another job because it’s just too painful to find a replacement for them. No manager wants to fill a position by creating a problem in another area. Before you can be promoted, you must have an able and ready successor. You must show that you can develop people. This is a very important trait especially for leadership positions. In fact the more senior the leadership position, the more critical it is that you have the ability to groom a successor.
The third key ingredient to a promotion is “Opportunity must knock”.
Before one can be promoted, a position must first become available to create the opportunity for you. The first two key ingredients, appearing competent and making yourself redundant are entirely within your control but the third “opportunity” is entirely up to luck or fate. You cannot control opportunity but you can make sure opportunities come up more frequently for you. Promotion opportunities usually come up in your own division because people know you Making other senior managers recognize your talents and see you as a competent leader will put you in their minds. The adage “Out of sight, out of mind” holds very true here. Many promotion opportunities go to waste because people are overlooked or even seen as not ready
Now that you know the three keys to a promotion, I want you to visualize a door with 3 locks. The door is the gateway to your promotion. To open the door you need the three keys “Appearing Competent”, “Making yourself redundant” and “Opportunity”.
You can’t open the door if you do not have all three keys with you.
So if you appear competent and an opportunity comes a long but you have no able and ready successor, then you will miss the boat. If you appear competent and you have an able and ready successor but an opportunity does not comes up, then of course there is no promotion and you have to wait for one.
You need all the three keys at the same time to be able get a promotion.
I urge you all to take charge of your careers. Make sure you appear competent to everyone and make sure you have a capable successor, so when opportunity knocks, you can grab your promotion.
I hope I have enlightened you on what it takes to get a promotion and that I have been able to live up to our clubs’ motto of “Friends helping friends to Succeed”.
Back to you.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Great Salesmen Rule the World
Another blue ribbon worthy speech tonight. Awesome. This was delivered by Alan Goon, the President of the ING Leadership Toastmaster's club.
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Great Salesmen Rule the World
Good evening fellow toastmasters.
I believe that Great Salesmen Rule the World.
People who have the ability to sell things, make the most money in this world.They are the most successful in business and they are always ahead of the pack in the workplace. Those who have the gift of selling are also the ones who hold powerful leadership positions in business and in government. In other words, if you want to rule the world, you need to be great at selling a product, selling a vision, selling an idea or maybe more importantly selling yourself.
If salesmen make the most money in this world, then Bill Gates the richest man in this world, must be a great salesman. He definitely was a revolutionary visionary, because way back in 1977 he had a vision of Personal Computers being pervasive in all our lives. This was at a time when computers were the size of a whole room and most people did not know what computers were.Having a great vision is not enough to succeed. You must have the courage and the ability to sell your great idea to others, to make them believe in it and to follow you. Microsoft is where it is today because Bill Gates succeeded in making others follow his vision.
When we talk about great salesmen, another icon of the technology industry comes to mind. Steve Jobs is the definition of a consummate salesman. He can sell ice to Eskimos. He knows what the customer wants and more importantly, he is able to communicate this and make you want to buy whatever he is selling. People queue up to hear Apple’s keynote session when Steve Jobs is supposed to reveal some new product. Everyone wants to hear Steve Jobs sales pitch. Apple is successful because Steve Jobs is such a great salesman. Steve Jobs is a rich man because he has the gift of selling.
If salesmen rule the world, then the most powerful man in the world must be a great salesman. To become the President of the United States, it takes years to sell yourself to your political party to be selected as a candidate for the Presidential elections. The job interview process happens once every 4 years and it is a long drawn out sales campaign to sell yourself to the American voters. No one gets elected President if he is a bad salesman.
Closer to home, recently as a member of the Talent Review Board, we were tasked with selecting 5 fresh graduates as candidates for ING’s Local Management Trainee Program. It was an intensive, detailed selection process. Despite all the IQ tests, the academic records, the job experiences, the psychological profiling, we basically selected people with great presentation skills who managed to sell to us that they were the best candidate for our management program. We were selecting the future leaders of this company and we did that by selecting the best salespersons out of the group.
In conclusion, if u want to be hired for your dream job, if u want to be the richest man in the world, if u want to be a corporate icon, if u want the job as the most powerful man in the world, you need to be a Great salesman.
How do you become a great salesman?
For some, it comes naturally. Some people just have the knack for selling. For others, it can be taught. To be a great Salesman, you need to be a great communicator and a great listener. You need to be able to speak confidently and have the courage to connect and maintain a connection with people you do not know. You need to manage your body language and vary your approach to suit different people. You must be able to think on your feet to handle objections. You need to become a master at persuading others to do what you wish
The good news is that all of you are in the right place tonight. The Toastmasters competent communicator program teaches in a step by step way all the things you need to begin your journey to be a great salesman. Being here tonight means all of you are on the road to Rule the World.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
The Coincidental IT Professional
Here's the winning speech for this week. An ice-breaker from our very own IT professional, Mr. Teh KL.
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The Coincidental IT Professional
Toastmaster of the Evening and my fellow toastmasters. Good evening.
Introduction
From the title, you should already know that I will be talking about my ambition. Well, what most of you see in me today is a consummate IT professional but I am using the term coincidental here to highlight the fact it was not by design.
I was born into a large traditional family of 5 girls followed by 3 boys. My 5 elder sisters didn’t have a lot of opportunity for education as my parents basically pinned their hopes on the boys.
As a result, we were all imbued with the thoughts that we should study hard and be a “somebody” when we grow up. From a very young age, I have always wanted to be a doctor.
Why am I not a doctor?
Body
Let me take you back 27 years to 1982 when I was doing my South Australian Matriculation in Taylor’s College. Yeah, I know, that’s how long it has been!
In my application for university admission, I duly put medicine as my 1st and 2nd choices and IT as my 3rd and 4th choices. Why IT? I am not sure but I remembered being told that IT is the job for the future.
To do medicine in Australia, you need an aggregate score of at least 430 out of 500. You see, I have always done well academically and 430 was certainly not beyond me.
However, I didn’t account for the fact that I was doing English Literature rather than English as a 2nd Language in my matriculation program. That means we were learning about Shakespeare rather than grammar, vocabulary and essay writing.
To cut the story short, I failed my English paper and only managed 49 out of 100 giving me a total aggregate score of 394.
I spent 7 years in Australia to learn all I need about IT.
When I came back to Malaysia, my first job was not in IT but to be a banker in Citibank. As a management trainee, I was going through training in various parts of the bank including corporate banking, treasury and consumer banking.
Six months later, I decided that a career in banking is not for me and quit Citibank to venture into business at the age of 26.
Even in business, my 1st venture was not in IT but in education due to influence from my sister who were (and still are) running very successful education institutions.
I did that for 4 years before I exited the education business and made a decent profit. More importantly, this is also where and when I landed the most important catch in my life – my wife!
From the education business, I went on to join the IT subsidiary of INTI to develop the IT business for the education market. Finally, I am going to back my roots in IT. As I was offered a stake in the company, I viewed this as a hybrid of doing business and developing my career.
It was during my tenure here that I first came into contact with ING as a vendor. I also had the privilege to meet the person who eventually played an instrumental role in my career development and personal growth.
My involvement with INTI lasted 4 years before I left and joined ING at the age of 34. So, you can see that I started my career late in life due to my misadventures in the business world.
I have been working here in ING for 10 years and my career progression has been good so far.
Conclusion
If you are a strong believer in karma, you will accept that everything happens for a predestined reason. Like when I failed my English paper, maybe it was because I was not meant to be a doctor. Or when I joined INTI and did the project for ING, maybe it was because I was meant to be in ING!
Well, my title says coincidental which means I am not into karma. I believe that life is often littered with events that require us to make choices along the way. The events and the choices that we make shape the life we live today and in the future.
Whether its karma or coincidental, I can have no regrets.
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The Coincidental IT Professional
Toastmaster of the Evening and my fellow toastmasters. Good evening.
Introduction
From the title, you should already know that I will be talking about my ambition. Well, what most of you see in me today is a consummate IT professional but I am using the term coincidental here to highlight the fact it was not by design.
I was born into a large traditional family of 5 girls followed by 3 boys. My 5 elder sisters didn’t have a lot of opportunity for education as my parents basically pinned their hopes on the boys.
As a result, we were all imbued with the thoughts that we should study hard and be a “somebody” when we grow up. From a very young age, I have always wanted to be a doctor.
Why am I not a doctor?
Body
Let me take you back 27 years to 1982 when I was doing my South Australian Matriculation in Taylor’s College. Yeah, I know, that’s how long it has been!
In my application for university admission, I duly put medicine as my 1st and 2nd choices and IT as my 3rd and 4th choices. Why IT? I am not sure but I remembered being told that IT is the job for the future.
To do medicine in Australia, you need an aggregate score of at least 430 out of 500. You see, I have always done well academically and 430 was certainly not beyond me.
However, I didn’t account for the fact that I was doing English Literature rather than English as a 2nd Language in my matriculation program. That means we were learning about Shakespeare rather than grammar, vocabulary and essay writing.
To cut the story short, I failed my English paper and only managed 49 out of 100 giving me a total aggregate score of 394.
I spent 7 years in Australia to learn all I need about IT.
When I came back to Malaysia, my first job was not in IT but to be a banker in Citibank. As a management trainee, I was going through training in various parts of the bank including corporate banking, treasury and consumer banking.
Six months later, I decided that a career in banking is not for me and quit Citibank to venture into business at the age of 26.
Even in business, my 1st venture was not in IT but in education due to influence from my sister who were (and still are) running very successful education institutions.
I did that for 4 years before I exited the education business and made a decent profit. More importantly, this is also where and when I landed the most important catch in my life – my wife!
From the education business, I went on to join the IT subsidiary of INTI to develop the IT business for the education market. Finally, I am going to back my roots in IT. As I was offered a stake in the company, I viewed this as a hybrid of doing business and developing my career.
It was during my tenure here that I first came into contact with ING as a vendor. I also had the privilege to meet the person who eventually played an instrumental role in my career development and personal growth.
My involvement with INTI lasted 4 years before I left and joined ING at the age of 34. So, you can see that I started my career late in life due to my misadventures in the business world.
I have been working here in ING for 10 years and my career progression has been good so far.
Conclusion
If you are a strong believer in karma, you will accept that everything happens for a predestined reason. Like when I failed my English paper, maybe it was because I was not meant to be a doctor. Or when I joined INTI and did the project for ING, maybe it was because I was meant to be in ING!
Well, my title says coincidental which means I am not into karma. I believe that life is often littered with events that require us to make choices along the way. The events and the choices that we make shape the life we live today and in the future.
Whether its karma or coincidental, I can have no regrets.
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